WICHITA, Kan. – The #12 Lady Tigers emerged from the NAIA Women's Wrestling Championship Tournament with two All-Americans in
Icart Galumette and, the highest finishing Campbellsville wrestler, #7
Liliana Vergara.
To start things off in the 117-lbs. bracket, #12 Galumette squared off against Baker's #6 Katherine Heath after a bye and she defeated Galumette with a 12-1 technical fall. The sophomore rallied in the blood rounds taking down three straight wrestlers with an impressive gauntlet of higher-ranked foes: #8 Marissa Kurtz (putting up 16 match points, tied for the most of any wrestler in the tournament), #11 Alicia Frank, and then #5 Cailin Campbell. In her opportunity to potentially finish as high as third, Galumette lost via pinfall to conference rival #10 Shammika Miranda of the Cumberlands Patriots. Battling to secure seventh-place, Galumette, in her chance to exact revenge against Baker's Heath, succumbed to a 10-6 decision.
#7 Vergara went undefeated in the first two sessions, breaking into the semifinals headed into the second day. Following a bye, she took down #18 Nevaeh Wardlow of Baker with a 1:04 pin and then won against Southern Oregon's #6 Bailey Dennis, shutting her out in a 5-0 decision. Vergara lost her first match of the tournament against #4 Ashley Lekas of Texas Wesleyan via technical fall before she faced Lindsey Wilson's #3 India Page who bested Vergara with a 7-0 final. In the match to decide the fifth-place finisher, Vergara took on Lillian Gradillas-Flores of Southern Oregon where the Lady Tiger posted the second-quickest finish of the tournament with her :27 pin.
For Campbellsville other participating wrestlers,
Olivia Messerly,
Gaby Perez (losing by just a single point in a 2-1 decision to end her run), and
Brianna Staebler (both victories via pin) all collected two wins in their competition.
Cameron Ortiz,
Addison Messerly, and
Kylee Tait picked up a single win amidst stiff competition.